Quote:
Originally Posted by Erin  The easiest way to teach stay is when you feed them.
Have them sit or down a few feet away. Tell them to stay. Hold their food bowl in the air and start to lower it. If they start to get up, raise the bowl back up and start over. Soon they realize they only get their food set down if they STAY where you put them.
Think of come as "come get a treat" You ALWAYS, ALWAYS want to reward come. It doesn't matter if your dog just shredded your mail, if you say come, and they come, THEY GET A TREAT. You do not want them to think twice about whether or not they want to come.
If you've been working on come and they ignore it, change words and start over. I just yell TREAT or BREAKFAST! Who cares what the word is, you want them to come. |
This is EXACTLY what I was going to post!!! Getting Paddington to sit-stay while I put his dish down is THE BEST thing I ever did with him! He won't even move towards his dish until I say "Okay" now! It is great, because he sits so patiently for everything- whether it's for me to throw a toy, or as I'm walking out the door, he sits and watches me. It also made it much easier to teach him "leave it" and "wait for the treat" (we are working on the one where we put it on his nose....) It has been invaluable for other obedience training exercises we've done, as well.
In regards to come, my trainer said that the word "come" is very low in the voice register, and sounds like a scolding word such as "no." She suggested saying "Yippeee!" and clapping like you're happy, because then the dog wants to see what you are so happy about, and they want to be part of the fun,so they come. It's important to always treat them when they come to you, either with a special toy or food, because otherwise they will lose interest in coming to you- they'll only come when you are more interesting than the bird they've chased across the lawn....
-O